header-logo header-logo

A social panacea?

09 April 2009 / Finola Moss
Issue: 7364 / Categories: Features , Child law , Family
printer mail-detail

Finola Moss asks whether the Adoption Act 2002 is a step too far

* * * * * *

The Adoption Act 1926 was a response to a pressing social need for child protection and the formalisation of adoption. Legislation introducing the concept of transplanting a child for ever into a new family had been stalled for a long time, because of the abhorrence of the common law to the alienation of a parent's right to their children. An adoption still required a mentally competent parent's consent. Fifty years later, the Adoption Act 1976 allowed an adoption if such consent was being unreasonably withheld.

The Adoption and Children Act 2002 (ACA 2002) would provide expeditious adoptions for children in care with forever families. It placed a child's needs at the centre of the adoption process, aligning adoption law with the welfare principle in the Children Act 1989 (ChA 1989), dispensing with a parent's consent if thought necessary in the child's welfare. The once hallowed, inalienable common law right became silently subsumed and overridden

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

NEWS
Robert Taylor of 360 Law Services warns in this week's NLJ that adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) risks entrenching disadvantage for SME law firms, unless tools are tailored to their needs
The Court of Protection has ruled in Macpherson v Sunderland City Council that capacity must be presumed unless clearly rebutted. In this week's NLJ, Sam Karim KC and Sophie Hurst of Kings Chambers dissect the judgment and set out practical guidance for advisers faced with issues relating to retrospective capacity and/or assessments without an examination
Delays and dysfunction continue to mount in the county court, as revealed in a scathing Justice Committee report and under discussion this week by NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School. Bulk claims—especially from private parking firms—are overwhelming the system, with 8,000 cases filed weekly
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
From oligarchs to cosmetic clinics, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) target journalists, activists and ordinary citizens with intimidating legal tactics. Writing in NLJ this week, Sadie Whittam of Lancaster University explores the weaponisation of litigation to silence critics
back-to-top-scroll